What Happened To The Fighting Genre?

Besides Tekken, DOA, Mortal Kombat, Soul Caliber, and the occasional, near half-decade separation of Virtua Fighter games, fighting games have pretty much gone the way of the Noiseland arcade, causing nothing fresh like a Killer Instinct or a Primal Rage to come out in quite some time. And to the author, that's a problem. As a fan of the genre, the author direly miss the hundred hit combos and monsters tearing into each other feeling you only get when you play a fighting game in the arcade.

Some have tried, like Square with Tobal, Bushido blade and Ehrgeiz, but none have succeeded yet. The fighting genre is too conservative. The difference between the first 3D fighters on PS1 and the ones coming out now isn't that big if you just look at the gameplay mechanincs.

@JsonHenry - Funny you should mention Soul Calibur, since that's the only fighting game that still gets my attention.

As long as I have my signature anniversary sticks I'm only a closet away from serious uppercuts and roundhouses to the skull.

Really I wish someone would take this sacred genre by the horns and make a new, immersive action / fighting game with an emphasis on fighting to bring younger gamers back into the fold. It's a matter of will.

The fighting genre just doesn't have much diversity. If you change the whole concept than it won't be a fighting genre anymore. First we had 2D fighting games, then we had 3D but the concept remained the same 1 on 1 figthing style. But now you could make sidewalks instead.

All that fighters do each time they come out is have a few new characters and some new attacks, graphics and better balance. And that's really fine with me. Tekken comes with something little new everytime. Like sidewalks in 3, tag in Tekken Tag, totally 3D movement in 4, custimization 5, and the use of the custimized items in 6.

It's just like these yearly soccer and football games, the only difference is that the fighting games come out every 2-3 years. Which is much better in my opinion. I don't have a problem with that in my opinion, I like them as they are with small emprovements every title.

exactly on the mark, how much of a innovation do you want? There really isn't enough to make one stand out from the popular 2d fighters if you go 2d (Guilty Gear, Street Fighter, and the SNK ones, Naruto, Bleach DS), and 3d is pretty covered as well (Tekken, DoA, VF, SC, DBZ). 1v1, tag team, multiple team members, multi level planes, 4 fighters, flying, finishing moves... there's always more ideas to incorporate (which is what most sequels do), but a true renovation wouldn't really be a fighting game anymore. The next thing I could think of would be a fighter in FPS mode, maybe with motion control... but wait, that would make it a FPS game, not a fighting game.

Yeah you got it right on, thats exactly how it works. I really don't know why people complain so much though, what exactly do they want out of a fighter? If you want something else, move on! Tekken VF SC they are fighters, thats what they do, nothing less, nothing more!

I deeply miss those old arcade fighters. Among 3D modern fighters, I only play MK and Soul Calibur now but more would be really welcome. I think for solution, Japanesse developers must work alongside their western fellows to make next-gen fighters. VF5 was excellent, DOA4 was really good and Tekken6/SC4 look promising but they all also play almost the same way they did when they were first released and no one can deny the similarities between look and feel of DOA,Tekken and VF (Character and world wise not the gameplay). J fighters have great gameplay and fight mechanism but a very similair and anime feel.

Western developers on the other hand try lots of new modes and themes, from "War Gods" to "Thrill Kill" to "Def Jam". They have great worlds and characters but bad/weak gameplay mechanics. Even 3D Mortal Kombat games like "MK:Armageddon" have rather weak and problemic fight mechanism (And this comes from a hardcore MK fan, check my user name).

What if next Mortal Kombat game is made of collaboration between Preject Soul members of Namco (Makers of Soul Calibur) and Midway team of MK?

That's happening now with shooters. Good games and Ideas, not to mention a fun genre is being run into the ground in order to cash in on the supposedly "hot thing". The games industry is having trouble coming up with new ways of "playing" games. It happened in the days of the fighters and you can see it happening now with another genre. A few years from now the shooter market will be shrinking due to the current oversaturation and you can see the "next big thing" now gaining momentum.... i.e. music based games.

It always happens within every genre, take a look at puzzle games following the success of Tetris, 100's of clones and some really good titles. Genre's however are normally good at weeding out the crap but when they hit really hard like the fighting genre and shooter genre they come on so fast that "weeding" basicly means eliminating all but the truly remarkable, and personally I can't wait, I love a good shooter, but when 50% of the games comming out are rinse, wash, repeat....... IT'S F***ING LAME!

I think the big problem with fighters these days is lack of creativity and the death of the arcade. I am so burned out on tekken and VF at this point, rarely is something new brought to the table in the fighting genre. As much fun as playing fighting games online is the old school arcade was much better. Doa 4 tried to mimic the old days with the little avatar rooms but they did it soooo wrong. Everyone not playing should have been in these rooms, you should have had to put quarters on the screen and the whole once your in the room you are out of the fight thing just sucked.

just kidding. I think it's been pretty well said. There needs to be something new and refreshing to innovate the fighter genre. I can remember having marathon MK tournaments. It was the rage at the time, but the same 'ol button mashing got really tired out after a while.

If you get the fighting engine to work as smooth as playing offline. Than that would bring the fighting games back. There would be mad online tournaments across the world and you would not have to leave your house. Just imagine Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter, and a Street Fighter 4 with lag free online competition. It would be crazy. Once that happen than more people would start doing original fighting games. It would be like the 90's again. Oh yeah and imagine the online achievements for the Xbox 360. And have DL content like new stages and charecters. That would be awesome.

the only thing I hate about fighting games is a lack of speed or the over use of it. The street fighters, honestly, got a bit crazy cuz they were so fast. Now VF on the other had feels so wanky and slow that it sucks the life out of it. Soul Cailbur a little of the same, the weapons slow you down. Tekken has the right combination of speed and finesse and thats why I love them best!

... I've always thought that the fighting genre was a bit shallow. Please don't kill me for saying this. Of all the games I've seen recently, not a lot was done in the genre except for boob physics. Looking at the few pics of the next game in the Soul Edge line they're going for that too. Eve's chest is so big in the screenshots it looks like her breasts will hit the opponent before her sword can. It's sad but that's what people gobbled up and that's what they're making now. I remember Bouncer tried to change things up a bit by adding an integrated story to the game but that didn't get very far.

I want a Killer Instinct, and a more balanced Guilty Gear. Thats all I ask for. I am tired of those non-sense botton large sequence combos: I like Killer Instinct cause the combos had its logic pace and sequence.

I'd like to see the outrage combos fomr Marvel vs. Capcom done in 3D but with the same detail as put into a MGS4 or Mass Effect. It would be tight to see combos like that where it looked real. I doesn't have to be bloody but calling in absolutely ridculous attacks that could be blocked by hold "back" on the controller was cool to me. I'd like to see that in 3D.

Let's face it, when you compare any fighting game to the wrestling genre (i.e, SD vs. RAw) they just suck.

Wrestling games offer create-a-characters, progressive (interchangable) storylines, online play, up to eight people on the screen at once and commentary.

I think everyone who says that the fighting genre has maxed its capabilities are dead wrong and ignorant of game development. We still don't have a single fighting game like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon -- no fighting game ever mimics the fight scenes from a Jackie Chan or Jet Li movie (not even their own games, which sucked). And why can't we have more than two fighters on the screen at once?

M.U.G.E.N introduced some interesting concepts, especially for multiplayer and tag-team matches. Also, we need different fighting games that focus on technique, rather than speed and button-mashing. Even Virtua Fighter 5 still suffers from the age-old arcade mechanics. It's just better looking.

And yeah, Soul Calibur games have only improved on graphics and control response. The biggest addition to Soul Calibur games are refined breast physics. Like someone pointed out, what's the point of using a weapon when your nipples are that large? Just poke out your opponent's eyes in that case.